More than 100 people worldwide have died as a result of the SARS virus, and an Australian expert has warned that Australia's health care system is not prepared for an outbreak of the potentially fatal disease.

Are you concerned about SARS? What precautions have you
taken?

This topic is now closed - this is what you said.

The AIDS problem in Africa is atrocious, but it is not because people do not want to help. If the pharmaceutical companies are forced to sell their drugs at cheaper prices in the third-world, this will affect the R&D and lower the overall quality of medicine in the future.

The best thing to do would be to establish a unique international fund to pay for medical treatment.

Another possible cure would be to kick the Catholic Church off the face of the universe - their condemnation of safe sex can be seen as the main purveyor of STDs - and there are more than one billion Catholics in the world, for God's sake!

Look at the whole picture, please.

My personal belief is that we have not been informed by the government that the Sars attack was a deliberate outbreak by terriorist groups hence the non-panic by the general public. Is this a taste of what is yet to come ?

Francis Moore

People like Marilyn Shepherd should take an introductory economics class as soon as possible.

Whether we like it or not, the entire world depends on healthy economies. Monetary issues aside, somebody needs to put food on the table and if you don't have a healthy economy, you might as well sit and wait for your own miserable end.

This isn't about greed. This is how we have structured our economies and our societies.

We are all locked in

Aside from writing off third world debts, there is an urgent need to establish an international fund to help solve the world's problems associated with poverty.

Sars is clearly one of many such problems. Why should people worry about hygiene when they can hardly afford to put food on the table for their kids?

Turning a blind eye to poverty is the greatest violation of human rights in the world today. We are all perpetrators, those of us in the West.

We need to look at the root of the problem. We need to look for long term solutions, rather than solve each crisis as it occurs.

Eliminate Poverty Is a Duty

What is this all really about? Only 4% of people with SARS die as a result of it and so far, since it's discover, it has killed 2001 people. This is surely less than preventable starvation has killed in the past few days and far less than previous virulent strains of the flu have in similar time spans historically. Is the panic perhaps not really about the fact that this is a man-made weapon that escaped it's military laboratory and if so how and by whom? Having been released accidentally, or on purpose, what happens when SARS mixes with natural variations of the common cold and flu virus that host on humans and animals? There is the real problem, not an exagerated, media sensation, but one highlighted by the release of one of many catastrophies being made in laboratories all around the world by people with the deaths of millions conatined in test-tubes.

Angus

Marilyn Shepherd - Sars doesn't have eyes; it doesn't just target the middle class. There are over six billion people on this earth - no one is immune from Sars except for those who have recovered from it. Your concern for the Iraqis is admirable, but clearly shows your lack of comprehension for the scope of the Sarcs epidemic.

As the Singaporean PM said, while Sars may not kill everyone, it may kill the Singaporean economy.

Given that Sars doesn't discriminate, our economy is also (if not already) at risk.

I think you should be concerned.

Please take the epidemic seriously

According to Time Asia magazine, the best face mask to protect one from the Sars virus is the N95 mask made by 3M.

I called up 3M Sydney HQ and was advised that there are four main types that you can buy in Australia: 3M 8210, 3M 8822, 3M 9320, 3M 9322.

N95 means that the mask can filter out a minimum of 95% of the contagions you encounter. Australia's equivalent to N95 (which is an American standard), is called a "P2" mask.

Some pharmacies sell N95 masks, but they are usually not 3M-made.

Your best bet is to call up 3M Sydney and ask for a list of their Melbourne distributors.

They cost about $3 each, but you have to buy an entire box, which is between 10-20 masks per box.

They are already running out of stock. You're best to get in early or at least, put in an order for a box.

I have a large family and I will be distributing the masks around to them. It's better being safe than sorry.

Note: Normal everyday masks you can buy from the pharmacies are virtually useless against Sars. It must be a P2 mask or you might as well not wear one.

Stock up on P2.

That's all very well James, but in Africa alone 40 million people have AIDS and no-one gives a stuff because they are poor.

In Afghanistan hundreds of thousands of poor kids are starving, in North Korea, in Zimbabwe, in China.

This misery seems to be lost on all of us as we whine about the wealthy getting a new type of flu. 35,000 people every year die of the flu, and no-one says a word.

Could it be paranoia about the airlines industry collapsing? Could it all be about money.

If so stay home and send your airfare to starving and dying children. Fair dinkum I have had such a gutful of the wealthy and selfish.

Marilyn Shepherd

In Japan, it is expected of people with the common cold or the 'flu to wear a mask to prevent passing the infection to another person. Consideration for one another means that almost all the Japanese adhere to this unwritten law.

It wouldn't hurt for we Aussies to adopt such a custom. Consideration for others is consideration for the self.

Wear a mask if you are unwell

Turning Vegetarian - Agreed!If only more people out there new the gruesome truth behind the meat industry, the world's starvation & ecological problems could be resolved.

On that note, if the entire human population stopped consuming meat only for 1 year, you'd be able to feed the world 4 times over.

yonatan

Marilyn, your concern for the people of Baghdad is admirable.

But if law and order and society stops because everyone is either too afraid to go out, too sick or too busy looting the sick and the dying then no one will be able to help the people of Iraq let alone themselves!

SARS could potentially do that. Every precaution must be taken to prevent its spread.

James

CATCH 22The development of anti biotics triggers the evolution/mutation of newer viruses.Live/die with it.

War can be prevented.

Nature is always inventing new ways to kill us as a way to test our viability as a species. Those who can't adapt to the new disease, environment or habitat perish.

SARS is no different. The real issue is if it gets loose in a large population. Do not underestimate this disease, because without prior exposure to SARS, your chances of survival are the same as everyone elses.

James

Paul Henry - nearly 200 dead, actually - and climbing. A couple of weeks ago, it was 3/100 deaths. But now it's climbed to nearly 6/100. I think you should be concerned.

Already worried

Everything goes back to commercialising the meat industry and protected organisations brainwashing the public to consume more and more meat.

While people are dying of starvation in African countries, cows and other animals raised for consumption in the West, consume tonnes of crops that can easily solve the world's starvation crises.

Rainforests around the world are being cut down not just for paper manufacturing, but for clear lands to raise cattle for your local McDonald's.

It's time to say no to meat. New epidemics like Sars will continue to affect the human race, if we don't do something about the greed and overt-commercialism in society.

Turning vegetarian

On the road from Amman in Jordan to Baghdad in Iraq Mark Baker reported hundreds of burnt out vehicles of all descriptions with possibly thousands of dead due to US rush to "conquer" Baghdad.

Did anyone care? A little boy asleep in his bed wakes up with his body burnt to bits, his arms gone and by my reckoning his 4 grandparents, his parents, his brother, aunts, uncles and cousins - 16 of them all gone.

Who initially gave a stuff?

But the flu comes along, just a new flu, a flu of the middle class travellers of the world and the world goes mad.

Ruth Russell and many Iraqi people living here predict as many as 100,000 people will be dead in the course of the illegal invasion of Iraq. Most of course will be kids, because Iraq is mostly kids.

Let's all stop whining about sneezes shall we and start collecting for the hospitals of Iraq?

Marilyn Shepherd

Hygiene in China is at ground zero especially in the country side.In view of the size of the country and the huge country side, it will be next to impossible for the authorities to have a grasp of the situation. Until the country folks learn to do away with with feudal farming, this is just a taste of what lies ahead. I don't think we will see the end of this disease in the short term.

CS

Human civilization is the history of fighting with diseases. What's the fuss about the media reaction this SARS?

The chance of getting it and dying is lower than being killed for driving at home.

Be cautious, that's the key.

fuhu zheng

As much as we're all afraid of Sars, more people actually die from the influenza each year than Sars. Only about 5% of Sars victims die from the infection. Of course there's still a threat, but frankly the threat is not great compared to the good old influenza.

Don't make a big fuss

I know personally of many cases of Australian residents newly arrived back from Sars infected areas, who disregard the 10-day voluntary quarantine period. Such inconsiderate people should at least wear a mask when they venture out of the door.

The best remedy may be that the government enforces a mandatory quarantine period for such people.

Think of other people!

100 people worldwide is not really a huge number. Hasn't the flu killed more people over the same period of time? I am not concerned. I trust that our government will act appropriately. As for how Australia would find ICU beds for a sudden 200 patients, of course this would put a strain on our system, but I am sure that we would provide better care than the average Chinese sufferer is receiving.